If
you’re a power pitcher, you’re gonna be a little wild. You’re goingto throw out of the strike zone when you throw that hard.
And it wasacceptable. Ryan might have walked
a bunch of people, but it really doesn’tmatter
how many people you walk—it’s how many you strike out in situationswhen you need a strikeout. And in strikeout situations,
nobodygot any more out of them then he did.
He had the ability to tune it up alittle,
and that’s rare. His mantra was, ‘Bring your game. I’m gonna throwit and if you hit it, congratulations. If you don’t,
sit the [bleep] down!

-George
Brett

You
just couldn’t replace a Nolan Ryan, he was one of a kind. He
put fear into the hearts of the other team. Youalways
knew when we came into town, in one of those three games we’dbe
playing you’d probably be facing the strikeout leader of the league. Hecarried a presence with him that we couldn’t replace. I
think everybody,to a man, did not want to
see him go. He was the anchor of our rotation,and
we knew with him gone we would be weaker.

-Bobby
Grich

You
wanted to play with him and behind him, and you were goingto
defend him. Even if he knocked somebody down, you were not goingto
let anybody get near him. I remember one time after I got hit, Nolanasked me, ‘Who do you want me to get?’ I said,
‘Don’t worry about it. I’llget
somebody on the double-play or something. You pitch your game.

-Don
Baylor

Nolan
was a .500 pitcher because of his teammates, and I know he won’t say that. Butcheck his ERA when he was a .500 pitcher, or his complete
games whenhe was 16–16 or 19–17. Nolan
didn’t have much help. He was never ona
dominant team.

-Pete
Rose.

Of
all the pitchers I ever faced in my 13 years in the big leagues,Nolan
had the biggest strike zone. Umpires just wouldbow
to his command. With the 7,000 strikeouts, seven no-hitters, andthe
stare, he had a mystique and he could intimidate the umpires, and ashis career was coming to a close it was something he took
advantage of.I don’t think he did it
consciously. It’s sort of like Clint Eastwood,who
never knew he was tough and sexy until someone told him he was.And
when Nolan was at the end of his career, he was kind of like ClintEastwood.

-Andy
Van Slyke

Nolan
made me start looking at myself. When I came upto
the big leagues, I would hold my hands straight up and hit anybody.But
I couldn’t hit Nolan, because he’d overpower me upstairs. So I startedcrouching and noticed I could see the difference in his
fastball when Iwas down better than when I
stood straight up. From then on, I was ableto
handle his fastball a little bit better.